I remember mentioning on the list a few weeks ago that there needs to be daycare available EVERYWHERE that women go. I believe childcare jobs should be performed by trained, qualified personnel. Women are no longer at home all day long being SOLELY professional wives and mothers the way they were in the 19th century….therefore, there will need to be safe, affordable daycare EVERYWHERE that women need to go. I say this because the idea of having day care centers attached to libraries, or to the schools with which they are affiliated, is appealing, but there are still questions of staffing, space, and cost which don’t go away just because we say it’s the responsibility of ”the management of the places where women go.”
Someone does have to pay for these services, regardless of whether you’re talking about a not-for-profit entity or a private business. In the case of the former, it’s the tax-payers, usually, and therefore less obvious and painful, except when the tax bill comes. In the case of the latter, it’s the consumers–including the childless and those who actually can handle their kids, maybe even preferring to have them along rather than in professional day care while they are shopping, who pay. We select the place we do our shopping largely on the basis of price and a place that offered such superfluous day care services would not likely be competitive.
The word “affordable” is a key. What is affordable when you’re living at the limits of your budget anyway? Unless it’s subsidized, there’s no way this day care service is going to be provided by professionals. Drop-in day care is virtually impossible to make into a self-supporting enterprise. I’m puzzled at the idea that children would somehow be better served by spending the whole day going in and out of various professionally-run day care centers than spending time with their parents. Have we really reached the point where our children are so unmanageable that we cannot handle them while shopping in a supermarket, standing in a waiting line at a post office or utility company, etc., so we need to have other people paid to do that for is. If so, the fault lies not in the children or in society, but in ourselves, folks.
Some parents are taking advantage of their daycare providers. Numerous parents go through the same cycles. They bring their children to childcare job centers and the first few weeks they have a very difficult time leaving their children, there are tears from both the children and parents. But after getting adjusted the advantage taking begins. Parents start picking up later and later, and dropping off earlier and earlier. They stop feeding their children breakfast in the morning, expectation us to do it. They start showing up without phone calls five to thirty minutes after closing time, with no apologies. Many parents try to fool us and pretend they don’t get off work until five thirty or six o’clock when we know they get off work at three- thirty, why aren’t they spending that valuable time with their children!
I live in London Ontarioand own and operate my own private home-based daycare. It is called Little Hands. I have a Business license simply for there name but I am not a licensed daycare facility. Like Leslie and some of the others had mentioned, you can have up to 5 children in your home and not have to be licensed. IN a licensed home daycare you can only have up to 5 children as well including your own, so if you have 1 child he/she needs to be included in your ratio of kids. Having past 5 children could get you in some deep water as this is actually considered illegal and plus your insurance company will not insure you past the 5 children limit.
There have been a lot of threads here about pre-schools and childcare jobs and I think Montessori got discussed a few times. The level of structure at a good Montessori is fine for babies, for the most part. It allows them to choose their own thing to do, except for ’circle time’ or meal time or outdoor play time. Frankly, it’s not so much the level of structure; it’s the content of the available play.
In 21st century India, spaces at even ordinary preschools are far fewer than the demand. But now a child would have to take an exam to get into a neighborhood preschool. Many parents were sending their children to rigorous cram schools. The tots were memorizing poetry and learning the proper way to walk, all to prepare for the preschool tests. a child of small age should not be bothered with all this. It’s useless information they expect them to learn, and it’s harmful for the child to undergo this stress. And if a child is supposed to know everything, then why are we sending her to school? There is a high demand of preschools than childcare jobs.
What you pay your nanny, why she likes working for you, or anything, but let me tell you, nannies long to be APPRECIATED. The First and most important way to do this is with your Checkbook. The Second way is to give her Lots of praise, good feedback, and little tokens of appreciation. She is caring for your BABY, your Child, and Your Investment. She has its life in her Very hands every day. Treat her accordingly. And stop pinching those damned pennies.
Childcare jobs shouldn’t have to “haggle” for a salary she is MORE than worth. You have the money; She needs it, stop being so damn stingy. If you can’t stay home and take care of your child yourself, and you’ve found someone who CAN and Does – Well, I assume – then you should compensate her accordingly. Yes, women who get into this line of work do so because they love children, or they’re good at being a nanny, they bring all kinds of good things to the table, etc… But they ALSO need the $$$$! They are not just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.
Your life is about to change…. In my opinion, allowances should be tied to jobs which will be her responsibility to complete (to your satisfaction). Not everyone agrees with jobs=money; some feel kids should get an allowance just because they’re part of the family…they should do chores for the same reason. I found, with my children, that money is a big motivator and also a consequence. No jobs - no money. Isn’t that the way the world works?
